Monthly Archives: August 2012

Vauxhalls Join Chris Evans’ Car Fest Event

Vauxhall’s latest and greatest sports cars will be heading south this weekend to star in the first ever Car-Fest, created by DJ Chris Evans, who will be raising money from the event for Children in Need.

 

Evans, a car fanatic, sold out of tickets in just one day for his original event, CarFest South, which is to be held at Hampshire’s Laverstoke Park at the end of this month, and after seeing what a success the event could be, he decided to add an extra event in the north west to raise even more money for Children In Need.

 

Vauxhall’s oldest entrant will be the 1910 C10 ‘Prince Henry’ – Britain’s first catalogued sports car – which has just been put on the road again after an extensive engine rebuild. Pride of Vauxhall’s 70-strong heritage collection, the Prince Henry, is the oldest of seven surviving models in the world, and featured prominently in this year’s Steven Spielberg film, War Horse.

 

At the heart of Car Fest at Laverstock Park Farm, home of ’79 Formula One World Champion Jody Scheckter, is a BRSCC hillclimb, where Vauxhall will be fielding its second entrant in the Vintage Seven class: the 1926 OE-type 30-98 Velox Tourer. The 30-98 was Britain’s first 100mph production car.

1960 Ferrari California Sold For Over 11 Million Dollars

At Pebble Beach (California) on the 20th August the 1960 California 250 LWB Spider went to an anonymous collector for over 11 million Dollars. A rare car that only had two owners.

 

The car is an extremely rare model and is one of only nine ever built for competition. The car comes from the Sherman M. Wolf collection, which was bought from its first owner in 1979 and who owned it up until last weekend. This Ferrari enthusiasm follows on from the debut of the F12berlinetta in the USA, and the handover of the personalised tailor made FF to the British golfer Ian Poulter. The manufacturer from Maranello was also a supporter at the auction on the Californian weekend.

 

At the same auction other wonderful Ferraris from the same collection came under the hammer: such as the 1985 288 GTO, which sold for 1 million Dollars, and a 340 MM Spider, which sold for almost 4.5 million Dollars. The day was a great success, with many rare vintage cars up for auction.

Motor Sport Stars Heading to Goodwood Revival

In under a month’s time the 2012 Goodwood Revival (14-16 September) will commence with an impressive line-up of over 75 star drivers and riders in action at the legendary West Sussex motor circuit.

 

A host of familiar faces from a wide variety of motor sports are due to be in action at Goodwood, including Formula One stars, rally winners, endurance racing champions and top bikers. Many of these famous faces will be racing wheel-to-wheel in more powerful machinery at the Revival, including the Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy Celebration race, and the Shelby Cup.

 

Touring Car talent will be campaigning 1950s saloon cars hard in the St Mary’s Trophy race, including current Honda BTCC drivers Matt Neal and Gordon Sheddon, along with other BTCC and WTCC legends Rob Huff, John Cleland, Anthony Reid, Stephen Jellay, Alec Poole and Patrick Watts.

 

These tin top racers will be joined by Scandinavian rallying greats Rauno Aaltonen and John Haugland, plus ex-Grand Prix stars Martin Brundle, Jochen Mass, Derek Bell, Rupert Keegan, Richard Attwood, Tiff Needell, Martin Donnelly, Desire Wilson, Brian Redman, Jackie Oliver, Vern Schuppan and Arturo Merzario, who are all sure to entertain the Revival spectators.

 

Expect to also see Red Bull F1 team principal Christian Horner and the team’s Chief Technical Director Adrian Newey in action, along with drivers as diverse as Indy 500 winner Kenny Brack, ASCAR Champion Nicolas Minassian and comedian Rowan Atkinson. Goodwood stalwarts Sir Stirling Moss, Sir Jackie Stewart, John Surtees and Barrie ‘Whizzo’ Williams will also be in attendance.

 

Motorcycling heroes will include Isle of Man TT stars Mick Grant, Charlie Williams, Keith Amor, Cameron Donald, Stuart Graham, Rex Butcher, Stan Woods and Cameron Donald, plus Moto GP rider Jeremy McWilliams, British Superbike ace Michael Rutter and Goodwood favourite Wayne Gardner.

Hyundai Launches New Website

Hyundai UK has launched its new website, designed to be a simple and engaging user experience for people looking to purchase a car.

 

Research conducted by Hyundai and other third parties suggests that whilst the internet is an integral part of the car purchasing process, consumers are finding the online experience complicated and irritating. It revealed that 30% of people were unhappy with their final purchase (Statistics carbuyer.co.uk).

 

Understanding that it can be a very daunting process for consumers when trying to choose a car, Hyundai has developed new features for its website to help potential car buyers make more informed decisions. A new tool called the ‘car chooser’ introduces the product range and helps customers work out which car will best suit their lifestyle and needs. Options such as: ‘I need room for seven people’ or ‘I’d like to spend £15,000’ can be selected, and then a list of the most appropriate models will be presented.

 

Once customers have chosen their ideal Hyundai, they’ll need to know if they can afford it. The ‘finance calculator’ enables users to tailor a finance solution that will suit them best. Filters can be altered depending on factors like the amount of deposit customers have, and clever functionality will recognise if the chosen car has a current finance offer, automatically adding it into the final calculation.

 

Andrew Cullis, Marketing Director at Hyundai UK commented: “Our main aim was to make the new website more engaging and user-friendly. We have developed a suite of new tools to help customers make informed decisions and choose a car that is absolutely right for them. Tailoring the website to the user will allow a much more relevant and customer-focused digital experience.”

 

Performance Improvement and Mystery Shopping Company Douglas Stafford has been working in partnership with Hyundai for over four years. Douglas Stafford has been providing clients with performance improvement programmes for over 23 years,  building up a wealth of expertise in this specialist field that continually provides benefits to all its clients. The company works with many national and international organizations from its Headquarters and has a national network of specialist Mystery Shoppers and Customer Researchers.

Honda Launches Summer Sale

To celebrate the last few weeks of summer, Honda is putting on a sales event to span across the whole of its car dealer network. During the event, running from the 17th of August until the 31st of August, customers can visit their local Honda dealer to bag themselves a great deal.

 

Along with the two week summer sale Honda has also launched a competition, giving customers the chance to win thousands of prizes every day. Some of the prizes up for grabs include two-for-one hotel stays, return flights to European destinations, cinema tickets and one year golf card memberships.

 

To be entered into the daily prize draw, all customers need to do is register their details on www.honda.co.uk/sale and wait for their unique code. The code will be sent via SMS or email and after 24 hours, can be used anytime throughout the summer sale by taking it to a local Honda dealer, to find out if they have won any of the daily prizes.

 

Every customer that registers their details and takes their code to a dealer will automatically be entered into the grand prize draw, to win a Honda of their choice. The prize is the winner’s choice and can be anything from a car, something from the motorcycle range, an ATV, lawnmower or generator.

 

“Honda’s summer sale and competition is a way for us to shake things up and get people excited. We recognise that competitions are a great way to engage with our customers, but also something fun to get everyone involved.” commented Kate Barratt, National Marketing Communications Manager at Honda (UK).

Motorpoint Customers Hail the Work of UK Car Manufacturers

Customers at Motorpoint, the UK’s leading car supermarket, are hailing the work of UK car manufacturers after a poll on http://www.motorpoint.co.uk/showed that 62% of customers are more likely to buy a vehicle if it is ‘Made in Britain’.

 

Motorpoint polled almost 3,000 customers and found over half are more likely to buy a car if it was ‘Made in Britain’. As a result, Motorpoint predict that UK roads will be occupied by more British-built cars over the next few years. The Jaguar, Mini and Land Rover are proving to be very popular traditional British makes.

 

Of over 3,000 vehicles on www.motorpoint.co.uk, increasingly more are made in Britain. Established in 1998, Motorpoint is the UK’s leading Car Supermarket Group with five locations across the UK in Derby, Burnley, Glasgow, Newport and Peterborough. David Shelton, Motorpoint’s Managing Director commented: “Our poll shows that UK motorists have trust in, and want to support British car production, so it’s increasingly important to offer cars manufactured in the UK.”

New Volvo Models for Company Car Drivers

Volvo Car UK announces the launch of Business Edition models in the S60, V60 and V70 line-ups with features aimed specifically at the business driver.

 

Volvo’s Business Edition variants have been designed to appeal directly to business drivers. By combining the right features and equipment with the Benefit in Kind (BIK) benefits of low CO2 emissions and fuel consumption, Volvo are able to deliver a higher specification on the models compared to its competitors.

 

The models have been designed to make choosing the best company car as straightforward as possible. Fitted with all the features business users demand, the Business Editions also boast a reduced price tag of as much as £3,000 compared to the ES which will automatically reduce a driver’s annual Benefit-in-Kind tax liability.

 

Volvo National Corporate Operations Manager Selwyn Cooper comments: “The business community is vitally important to us at Volvo, particularly as we have seen an increase of nearly a third (32 per cent) of business users funding a Volvo through our contract hire and leasing facilities in the first six months of this year. In order to better represent their needs, we are launching our new Business Editions in the S60, V60 and V70 line-up to make it easier for company car drivers to identify the right model for them.”

 

Performance Improvement and Mystery Shopping Company, Douglas Stafford, works in partnership with Volvo Cars London. Douglas Stafford has been providing clients with performance improvement programmes for over 23 years and have built up a wealth of expertise in this specialist field that continually provides benefits to all of its clients.

Douglas Stafford on the Move

Performance Improvement and Mystery Shopping Company Douglas Stafford has now completed its move into newer and larger offices at the 1000 Lakeside Business Park.

 

The expanding company has moved from its office of three years on the ground floor at Lakeside to a more spacious office on the second floor which has been custom-designed to suit all of its needs.

 

Douglas Stafford has prided itself on giving the highest levels of customer service to its wide ranging client base. The Mystery Shopping Company works in partnership with its clients to provide the highest standards of customer service as well as a platform to train and develop their staff to excel and become market leaders within their industries.

 

The Lakeside Business Park is currently expanding its development with a new retail/lifestyle hub which is expected to be ready for opening in early 2013. The south’s landmark business location offers exciting development opportunities which cater to a variety of occupiers’ requirements. The Business Park includes statement HQ office buildings, courtyard offices, shops, restaurants and a prestige car showroom.

Motorcycle Live 2012- The Countdown Begins

The countdown to the UK’s biggest and best bike show is officially on. Advance tickets for Motorcycle Live 2012 go on sale at 9am on Monday 20 August; costing just £16 per adult, £10 for seniors and £6 per child, also the first 500 adults to book will pay just £10 each.

 

Motorcycle Live 2012 takes place at The NEC, Birmingham from 24 November to 2 December and promises to be a great day out for all ages and for bikers and non-bikers alike. As the thousands of happy visitors have come to expect, the show also boasts all the major motorcycle manufacturers as well as a daily dose of famous faces and legendary racers to keep the crowds entertained.

 

The all-inclusive ticket gives access to five exhibition halls crammed with all the latest bikes, clothing and accessories, but also provides non-stop entertainment from some of the biggest names in biking, plus custom, touring and classic zones, six opportunities to ride a motorcycle and entry into the jaw-dropping stunt display in the Ramp’d Up Freestyle Motocross Arena.

 

“Motorcycle Live is the biggest and best motorcycle show in the UK – it’s as simple as that. I tend to go for two days – to work on one day and to have a look around on another day. I thoroughly enjoy it.” – Toby Moody, motorsport TV presenter and commentator .

Honda joins Handa in ISPS Handa Ladies British Masters

Honda (UK) has joined forces with the ISPS Handa Ladies British Masters to become the golf tournament’s official vehicle sponsor. This exciting new flagship tournament on the Ladies European Tour, will take place between 16-18 August at the Buckinghamshire Golf Club, just outside of London.

The Honda CR-V, Civic and Accord are the vehicles which will be used by officials and VIPs to make sure they get to where they need to be in comfort during the three day event. Britain’s most successful golfer, Laura Davies, will be attending the event and participating in the tournament.

Andrew White, Chief Executive of event promoter, WSM Communications said: “We are delighted to have Honda on board to support the ISPS Handa Ladies British Masters. It was important that we have a fleet of cars which have room to transport our passengers as well as golf clubs and equipment safely and securely and the Honda Accord, Civic and CR-V fit these needs perfectly!”

The spacious and versatile cars will provide plenty of room to carry passengers along with golf clubs and other golfing equipment. Honda will also be providing visitors of all ages with some extra entertainment in the form of the thrilling S2000 simulator.